Conventional high-luminescent television, motion picture and theatrical lights have a curved reflective housing and a high intensity lamp mounted in the housing. Typical high-intensity lamps include gas vapour, arc and metal halide. Such high-intensity lamps have a high luminescent output for illuminating a large portion of the set. However, these lamps also emit substantial quantities of heat, making them unsuitable for situations requiring the light to be placed in close proximity to an actor or model. Further, the high intensity lamps are quite fragile and, therefore, must be removed from the reflective housing during transport. In addition, the curved housing tends to focus the heat generated by the lamp around the lamp itself thereby subjecting the lamp structure to increased thermal stress. Over time, this stress can lead to early failure of the lamp.
Attempts have been made to reduce the thermal stress imposed upon the lamp. Typically, these attempts have involved incorporating heat sinks into the reflective housing so as to dissipate the heat generated by the lamp. However, such heat sinks tend to increase the cost of manufacturing the light, while also increasing the difficulty of replacing failed lamps. Further, the heat sinks tend to increase the weight of the light, rendering them top-heavy and difficult to maneuvre into position. Accordingly, there remains a need for a low maintenance lighting system which is suitable for close-up work in television, motion picture, still photography, and other photographic, cinematographic and theatrical lighting applications, and which can be easily maneuvred into position and transported between sets without a high risk of bulb failure.